I recently saw a friend post this statement on Facebook:
Why couldn’t Jesus have said “Just don’t hate your neighbor”.
It’s so true for so many of us. So many times we want to overlook the real meaning of “Love your neighbor as yourself”. It’s pretty easy to look at that say, “well, I’m not hurting my neighbor, so it’s all good.” But that’s not what it says. And let’s not miss the other part of that…”as yourself”. That doesn’t mean take care of yourself first, then, if you have money, food, time, etc., leftover that you then use it to help your neighbor. It means that you put your neighbor’s needs on the same level as your own. Wow. What an amazingly difficult challenge to try to live up to!